School–University–Community Pathways to Higher Education: Teacher Perceptions,School Culture and Partnership Building

This article provides a snapshot in time of teacher perceptions, school culture, and partnership building. We delineate how teachers perceive our partnership’s purpose and its role in transforming school culture. Second, we describe how teachers express the life expectations they have and the possibilities they hope for their students and the families involved with the partnership. Finally, we outline our thoughts on moving forward with building partnership, continuing to transform school culture, and collaborating with teachers. In conclusion, we discuss the role that partnership building can have on creating pathways to higher education for students in communities of color.     

Coaching Teachers to Improve Students’ School Readiness Skills: Indirect Effects of Teacher–Student Interaction

This study examined indirect associations of MyTeachingPartner coaching with pre-K students’ (N = 1,570; 73% low income) school readiness, via improvements of teachers’ (N = 393; 47% Black; 41% Head Start) classroom interactions. Data were collected across 2008–2009 and 2009–2010 in 10 urban sites across the eastern United States. The number of completed coaching cycles was examined as a predictor of teacher–student interactions, as were direct or indirect associations with students’ literacy, receptive language, and working memory skills. Significant findings indicated that teachers engaged in more feedback cycles showed greater improvements in instructional interactions, in turn predicting greater increases in students’ early literacy and working memory. Results confirm the theory of change for coaching and an ecological-developmental conceptualization of school readiness.     

Assessment to Increase Students’ Creativity: Two Case Studies

Changing the assessment method is a way to influence the students’ attitudes towards their studies; their ways of working to a large extent are determined by the assessment methods. One way to take advantage of this is to use the assessment to stimulate creativity and communication skills. This has been tried in full‐scale studies for students in engineering physics, computer science and mathematics at Uppsala University and Vdxjö University, both in Sweden. Undergraduate education in engineering, computer science and mathematics has by tradition emphasized training in skills. The examination often consists of problems that the students solve individually. It is difficult to give complex and/or loosely defined problems in such an examination. The students are not encouraged to analyze, judge, communicate or discuss these skills. In fact, in the authors’ experience, traditional examinations can actually inhibit the development of the students’ independence and creativity. Both projects have been supported by the Council for Renewal of Undergraduate Education, Sweden.     

Translating Current Science into Materials for High School via a Scientist–Teacher Partnership

Scientist-teacher partnerships are a unique form of professional development that can assist teachers in translating current science into classroom instruction by involving them in meaningful collaborations with university researchers. However, few reported models aim to directly alter science teachers’ practices by supporting them in the development of curriculum materials. This article reports on a multiple case study of seven high school science teachers who attended an ongoing scientist–teacher partnership professional development program at a major Southeastern research university. Our interest was to understand the capacity of this professional development program for supporting teachers in the transfer of personal learning experiences with advanced science content and skills into curriculum materials for high school students. Findings indicate that, regardless of their ultimate success constructing curriculum materials, all cases considered the research grounded professional development supports beneficial to their professional growth with the exception of collective participation. Additionally, the cases also described how supports such as professional recognition and transferability served as affordances to the process of constructing these materials. However, teachers identified multiple constraints, including personal learning barriers, their classroom context, and the cost associated with implementing some of their curriculum ideas. Results have direct implications for future research and the purposeful design of professional development experiences through scientist-teacher partnerships.     

Creating an English Environment to Foster the Students’ Ability in Communicating

English is becoming more and more important in communicating as the further development of the reform and opening up. We English teacher should try our best to create and arrange a kind of language environment according to our students’ practical life in order to improve and enhance their interest in English studying, to encourage them to practice English during their daily life and to cultivate their ability to communicate in English.     

Partnerships in Teacher Education: a response to The Business Partnership in School‐based/‐centred Initial Teacher Training

Abstract

This paper is a response to a Joint publication from Enterprising Approaches to Teacher Education (EATE), the Teacher Placement Service (TPS) and the Banking Information Service (BiS) (June 1994) which examined the validity of business‐education partnerships in initial teacher training. While supporting the essential points made by EATE et al, this paper stresses the need for permeation and flexible learning strategies in introducing and addressing these aspects of the curriculum and cites experiences from the school‐based Post‐Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) at the University of Bath.     

Parent–School Partnership Formation through the School Council in Korea

Official involvement of parents in school education has been very limited until recently within the highly centralized educational administration and school management system in Korea. But, the educational reform in 1995 has brought fundamental changes in educational administration and school management system of Korea. The main approach of the reform is decentralization, which tries to turn over the power of the central government in educational administration and school management to the hands of regional education offices and site schools. According to the reform, the school council was introduced to enforce autonomous and responsible school-based management through broad participation of various stakeholders of education. In this article, I examined the background, roles, and characteristics of the school council, focusing on the new pattern of parent–school participation formation. And based on the findings, I discussed the issues of parents participation and future prospects of the school council and suggested policy implications for better implementation of parent–school partnership through the school council.     

How to Improve Students’English Listening Comprehension in Middle School

Listening is considered to be one of the most difficult skills in English learning.As one of the receptive skills,listening is the foundation to develop other language skills.For a long period of time,...     

Does a Strategy Training Foster Students’ Ability to Learn From Multimedia?

Despite the general effectiveness of multimedia instruction, students do not always benefit from it. This study examined whether students’ learning from multimedia can be improved by teaching them relevant learning strategies. On the basis of current theories and research on multimedia learning, the authors developed a strategy training for 9th-grade students. To evaluate it, 31 students received the aforementioned training and 33 students received placebo control training. After that, students completed a multimedia learning session on meiosis. Results showed that although the experimental training improved students’ strategy knowledge, it had no effect on learning outcomes. Accordingly, students acquired strategy knowledge but did not apply it later. Implications for the design of multimedia strategy interventions and future research are discussed.     

Establishing Scientific Discourse in Classroom Interaction Teacher Students’ Orientation to Mundane Versus Technical Talk in the School Subject Norwegian

This article reports a case study on classroom interaction in teacher education in Norway. It addresses how teacher students in the school subject Norwegian constitute scientific talk in a student-led discussion. First, the analysis reveals tension in the classroom conversation between mundane talk—that is, where students make claims with reference to their personal epistemic domain—and scientific talk—that is, where students make claims with reference to a shared scientific epistemic domain. Then, the analysis identifies specific interactional resources (reproach, embedded correction, formulation, and recontextualization) that the students use to regulate and bridge the 2 levels of discourse. Finally, the article provides insights into how scientific discourse is collaboratively established through conversational turns and considers how teacher education might use these findings for communication-skill training.     

Teachers’ Role in Students’ Learning at a Project-Based STEM High School: Implications for Teacher Education

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education - This study explored how teachers engage and support students at a project-based STEM high school to identify key elements defining...     

Latino High School Students’ Perceptions of Caring: Keys to Success

This mixed methods investigation specifically examined Latino high school adolescents’ perceptions of teacher behaviors that demonstrate caring. A chi-square test was conducted to analyze the frequency of responses, and focus group interviews were conducted to expand on the results. The data indicated that although Latino male students were as likely to perceive the same behaviors Latina female students perceived as important or very important, a higher percentage of female students rated the same items as important. This investigation situates Latino high school adolescents’ voices as a pivotal agent to inform about the critical nature of caring for all students.     

Upper High School Students’ Understanding of Electromagnetism

Although electromagnetism is an important component of upper secondary school physics syllabuses in many countries, there has been relatively little research on students’ understanding of the topic. A written test consisting of 16 diagnostic questions was developed and used to survey the understanding of electromagnetism of upper secondary school students in Turkey (n = 120) and England (n = 152). A separate test consisting of 10 questions on the visualization of spatial rotation was used to investigate the hypothesis that students’ ability to visualize three‐dimensional situations from two‐dimensional representations might influence learning of electromagnetism. Many students’ responses showed misunderstandings and inconsistencies that suggested they did not have a coherent framework of ideas about electromagnetism. Common errors included confusing electric and magnetic field effects, seeing field lines as indicating a “flow”, using cause–effect reasoning in situations where it does not apply, and dealing with effects associated with the rate of change of a variable. Performance on the spatial rotation test was, however, only weakly correlated with performance on the electromagnetism questions. The findings suggest the need to develop teaching strategies that help students to visualize magnetic field patterns and effects, and assist them in integrating ideas into a more coherent framework.     

Students’ Experiences of Meaningful Situations in School

This paper focuses on school situations students experienced as meaningful and how these experiences can guide educational improvement. Participants included 15 students in grade 3 from a Swedish school. In this qualitative study, the data consisted of drawings, multimodal productions, interviews, and field notes. The analysis resulted in four themes: Having the opportunity to learn in different spaces; Being free and able to participate; Experiencing caring and sharing, and Recognizing one’s own growth and achievement. The findings suggest that situations students find meaningful involve aspects of both learning and wellbeing. The practical implication for these results is that student-generated qualitative data can help indicate needs for educational improvement.